Pursuit of frictionless transactions includes payment APIs for washing machines, refrigerators and cars.

Visa Inc. envisions a future in which getting paid and spending money happen much quicker and consumers have the choice to interact less with physical banks and cash registers.

To that end, the payments technology company has created about 60 major application programming interfaces since early 2016, including a method for paying independent contractors of ride-sharing companies immediately at the end of the day and payment capabilities with internet-enabled devices such as cars and refrigerators.

Commonly known as APIs, application programming interfaces are lines of code used by developers for building software and applications. APIs allow a software platform or application to connect to an external app. They’re the thread that holds together modern digital platforms, allowing developers to connect, for example, to social, productivity or financial platforms in a standardized way. APIs hold a lot of strategic value for companies, making it possible to scale quickly and they can be used internally as well.

Visa hired 2,000 new technology employees over the past three years, many of whom are working on developing APIs.

Visa has had to think beyond traditional payments to maintain its relevancy, especially in an era where digital and physical worlds are constantly colliding. E-commerce and mobile apps have upended the traditional idea of going to the store, walking up and down aisles, putting items in a cart, queuing in line and finally paying at a cash register, said Jim McCarthy, Visa’s executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships. People now want immediacy and frictionless experiences when it comes to purchasing items.

“Historically, search-to-purchase was a serial set of steps to get to checkouts,” Mr. McCarthy said. “In a world (where physical and digital) is converging, payment disappears.”

Dozens of Visa’s recently-created APIs can be used by financial institutions, merchants and technology companies through Visa’s cloud-based Visa Developer platform, which was built in-house and officially launched in February 2016.

For example, ride-sharing companies could use a purpose-built API to disburse payments to drivers, within minutes of their shifts ending, or to push their earnings to a virtual card if they don’t have an existing debit card.

Visa has also built an API that allows banks to make sure that purchases are not declined for customers who are traveling abroad by matching a customer’s cell phone geolocation data with the card number. If a customer’s geolocation data doesn’t match with the card being used in the transaction, the bank and the customer will be alerted. “We’re giving banks more information so you, as the consumer, can have a better shopping experience with less fraud,” Mr. McCarthy said.

Visa set a goal in 2014 to hire 2,000 technology professionals by 2017 to improve and expand its digital financial services. The company sees competitive advantage in bringing technology talent in-house rather than using contractors, executives at Visa previously told CIO Journal.